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Mage
This article is a description of the character class '''Mage'. For information on the role of mages within the lore of Warcraft, see Mage lore. ''For related articles, see Category:Mages. Overview A '''mage' is a caster that specializes in burst damage and area of effect spells. Their primary role in a group at lower levels is damage dealing and the crowd control of mobs by temporarily turning them into a sheep (or other harmless animal) with polymorph thereby preventing the target from participating in combat for an amount of time. At higher levels, the mage's role expands into a utility role, as many encounters in the game are difficult to finish without Counterspell, Detect Magic and Remove Curse. Mages can also conjure food and drink to help everyone recover faster from battle. They can also teleport to major cities and open portals for party members. The Mage is a mana-based class. In player vs player combat, the mage is a kiting class like the hunter. They deal ranged damage while using escape skills to avoid taking damage during combat. Their primary stats are Intellect, Stamina, Spell Damage and Spirit (the order of importance varies with the player's role). Races The Mage class can be played by the following races: Alliance * Gnomes * Humans * Draenei Horde * Undead * Trolls * Blood Elves See the Mage Races page for further details. Weapons and armor Mages can only wear cloth armor. They begin with the ability to use staves and wands but they can learn dagger and one-handed swords from weapon masters. Wands go in the ranged slot and have the autoshoot ability. For details on armor set items that are useful for mages, see Mage Sets. Spells Mages have a wide variety of spells. Boasting an impressive repertoire of ranged spells, they have utility and teleport abilities to compensate for their lack of stamina and defense. Broadly speaking, their spells can be categorized as follows: * Damage spells ** Direct Damage ** Area of Effect Damage * Defensive spells ** Snare and root type effects (ice based) ** Crowd Control ** Damage Absorption/Avoidance ** Curse Removal ** Summon Mana Gems, for personal use only * Utility spells ** Intellect Buff ** Conjure food and drink * Teleport spells ** Self ** Others See Mage Spells page for further details. Talents Mage Talents are split into 3 categories which mirror their 3 main spell types. Descriptions of the roles of mages who specialize in each talent tree are shown in parentheses. * Arcane (Arcane mage) * Fire (Fire mage) * Frost (Frost mage) Talent builders can be found at Official Blizzard site, WoWhead, Panda Hideout, WoW Vault, ThottBot, Merciless. See the Mage Talents page for further details. Endgame expectations In a group or raid environment, mages are usually tasked with ranged DPS, AoE, crowd control and handing out provisions. With the introduction of patch 1.11, mages enjoyed a high degree of flexibility in the end game. Previous to patch 1.11, it was expected that most mages would spend 5 talent points in Improved Arcane Explosion, which made it an instant-cast spell. Post-patch, Arcane Explosion is instant-cast for all mages, which frees up a large amount of talent points to experiment with other specialized talents. Evocation, which was previously part of the Arcane talent tree, was also given to all mages free of talent investment and with a lower cooldown. New changes to all three trees also made investing points into both the Fire and the Frost trees highly viable. As far as damage, frost sees heavy use in Molten Core and Blackwing Lair as many enemies there are resistant or immune to fire damage. Curse of the Elements can lessen the problem of fire resistance for fire-spec'ed mages in Molten Core, though immune bosses like Ragnaros and Nefarian still present a major hurdle. However, Naxxramas includes frost-resistant enemies and DPS intensive fights, making fire more lucrative for mages who plan to raid there. Regardless of the location, a handful of fire mages are a great asset to any raid. They typically output higher damage in burn-out fights, behind the the two minute line, and the Improved Scorch talent allows a mage to stack fire vulnerability on a mob up to an additional 15%, which aids in the DPS of fire-based spells from other classes, such as Immolate for Warlocks. PvP-wise, mages are considered "glass cannons" - a design philosophy which gives mages generous burst damage at the cost of, generally, low health. Aided by talents such as Presence of Mind and Arcane Power, they are one of the classes with the most potential for dealing out the greatest amount of damage in the shortest amount of time. In group PvP, mages will stay back and focus on crowd control with Polymorph and pick off targets from range. Depending on the Battleground and the situation, mages typically AoE to prevent node captures or nuke flag carriers as fast as possible. The endgame mage also acts as a utility class, providing drink, food, buffs and portals. When it comes to providing drink and food, mages are by some considered equal to "vending machines" due to their unique ability to create refreshments out of thin air and provide them with no cost except mana and time. However, many mages feel that this is not their primary role and therefore refuse to give away merchandise free to people he or she doesn’t know. Mages seems to be a balanced class. See also *See Starting a Mage for some advice when starting out *See the Category:Mages for further information on the Mage class *See Mage Tactics for advanced information on playing as a Mage *See Mage (Warcraft II) for unit statistics in Warcraft II External links Some helpful information at the official WoW forums: * WoW Mage Discussion * WoW Mage Class Forum * Mage Class FAQ guide * A Guide to Mage Talent Specs * The history of Arcane Magic in the Warcraft Universe ---- Category:Mages Category:Classes